Newsletter-238-January-1991

Tuesday February 5th
"Discovering Little-Known London" by Mary O'Connell.
Mary's talk and slides will reveal a new realm of London's History.

Tuesday March 5th "Digging in
Assyria - the work of the British Museum" by Dr. John Curtis.

Tuesday April 2nd "Valley of the
Kings: Burial of the Pharaohs" by Peter Clayton.

HADAS DINNER AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, 4TH
DECEMBER

We set off by coach
on a cold night, arriving at 6.30 pm at the Royal College of Surgeons,
Lincoln's Inn Fields, to be greeted by the Curator of the Museum, Miss
Elizabeth Allen. After her greeting, we were taken into the Hunterian Museum
where we looked at many exhibits in cases. I was fascinated to see all the
little stillborn babies at various stages of growth preserved in bottles. Some
were quite large, but others almost as tiny as a pinhead. We then moved on to
look at Siamese twins and other mishaps of nature, and cases of lungs destroyed
by disease. Some of us braved going into the Odonatological Room where we met
Dr. Grigson, who told us about the collection, which derives from the museum
started in 1856 by the Odonatological Society of Great Britain - this
collection was acquired by the PCS in 1907. We looked at showcases of tooth
wear, injuries and diseases of the jaws in animals and humans. Dr. Grigson then
told us about the connection between the Piltdown man and the Society.

After a while I decided I had had enough
of looking at innards etc. and feeling slightly off-colour, sat down with
friends and announced, "I hope we are not having liver for the meal."

We then went into the Webb Johnson Room
where we had an excellent meal with quick service by pleasant staff. We were
pleased that Dr. Grigson and Miss Allen joined us. John Enderby gave a great
vote of thanks to our Dorothy Newbury for once again arranging such an
excellent Christmas Dinner. In her reply, Dorothy said she is already thinking
about Christmas 1991.

On my part many thanks, Dorothy, for
this interesting evening, and yes, I did enjoy the meal after seeing the Museum
etc.
PHYLLIS FLETCHER

FINISHED AT LAST:

The programme of excavations at the
19-25 High Street, Chipping Barnet site is now complete, since we feel that we
have sampled the site and recovered a sufficient cross-section of finds to
enable the activities on the site to be securely dated, although the seeming
lack of structural features remains a problem.

Working both at Barnet Museum and Avenue
House, we have now completed the initial sorting of the 19-25 High Street and
"Mitre" material. This has meant ensuring that all finds bags are
properly labelled, ordered by context number, and the material from each context
sorted by type; detailed pottery analysis and recording will follow at a later
stage.

We have just started a similar process
on the material covered in 1989 from the Studio Cole site, 1264 High Road,
Whetstone. Initial work indi­cates that there is some early medieval pottery
present, including a few grey-ware sherds c. 1150-1300, similar to. those
recovered in such profusion from the "Mitre" and 19-25 High Street
sites a mile or two north at Barnet. Since the building itself is estimated to
date from c. 1500, this could indicate activity on the site up to 300 years
earlier. More detailed analysis of the finds should elucidate this point. By ANDY SIMPSON

ERIC WARD

Eric Ward died on
October 16th after a long and distressing illness.

Eric and his wife
Ella were familiar figures at the West Heath dig. Eric, an electrical engineer
by profession, always worked with a sense of thoroughness and took pride in a
job being well done. Not a tall man, he was extremely neat, and worked on site wearing
a suit. I used to joke with him that at the end of the day he looked as if he
had been to his office, while the rest of us were characteristically grubby and
dishevelled:

He was an accomplished photographer who
kept meticulous notes. He has given his photographs and negatives of the West
Heath Excavations and flint to the Society, as well as a set of HADAS
Newsletters.

Eric was a man of many talents, and he
built a beautiful model of the 17th century warship the "Vasa", which
he saw being raised from Stockholm Harbour. The model will go to the National
Maritime Museum, who have commented on the very fine standard of the craftsmanship.

Not a man of superfluous words but
always kind and courteous, Eric will be much missed. In the hope of helping
others, he donated his brain to medical research. HADAS extends its sympathy to Ella, who nursed him so devotedly, and also
to his family in their sad bereavement.
By MYFANWY STEWART

HENDON ON THE MAP - AT LAST:

The latest addition to Alan Godfrey's
series of Old Ordnance Survey Maps is HENDON 1895. As many HADAS members may
know, Alan has been searching for an original in good condition for a very long
time. His persistence has been rewarded and we can now all enjoy the reprint,
courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

The map (Middlesex Sheet XI.7) fills the
hole between maps of Finchley and Holders Hill (1895), East Finchley (1894) and
Golders Green (1894), all of which have already been published and are still
available.

HENDON 1895 covers the area between The
Burroughs and Regents Park Road (west to east) and Hendon Hall to Shire Hall
(north to south). As usual, the map is full of fascinating details (extensive
glasshouses behind the Salvation Army Barracks), is accompanied by an extract
from the Street' Directory 1895-6 (remarkable number of laundry ladies) and
excellent notes by Pamela Taylor.

You can buy your copy (price £1.50) from
the libraries, or by post from the Local Studies Library (£1.75 including p
& p). Worth the investment for rarity value alone: by LIZ HOLLIDAY

GILLIAN
BRAITHWAITE WRITES FROM RUSSIA

Newsletter readers will remember that
Gillian Braithwaite, who directed excavations at Brockley Hill in 1987, has
gone to Moscow with her husband Rodric, who was appointed British Ambassador in
1988. (See July 1988 Newsletter). She writes:

"Georgia would
be a wonderful place to take a HADAS trip.

Another idea I have, which I don't know
if HADAS people would be interested. There are a number of elderly Russian
ladies (age 50 or so) who have taught English or English Literature all their
lives and have never ever been to England. Now it is possible to go, but they
are too old to get on the lists of those who are invited. Would any people in
HADAS be prepared to have some of them over as guests, and in return I'm sure
the Russians would invite them back. It's just a thought. A friend of mine who
heads the English teaching at Moscow University is very keen to do something
for them.

If any HADAS members are interested in
this venture, please contact Dorothy Newbury (081-203 0950) for further
information.

(Footnote: a HADAS member has just sent
a cutting from "The Guardian" of 7th December 1990, "Hunger or
Hope in the Candlelight" by Lydia Grafova. This tells how food parcels are
being sent from all over the world to help the poor and needy in Russia, and mentions
that Lady Braithwaite is a member of a Community Volunteers committee set up to
discuss the idea of a helpers' task force to help distribute the parcels.)

Review of PREHISTORIC LONDON by Nick Merriman

Published by the
Museum of London

Printed by HMSO
1990

This is an attractively produced
publication that, in 48 pages, covers the occupation of today's London area
over the past 500,000 years. Obviously aimed at the general public, the book is
very successful in its exposition of this long period of time and its order of
events with which many people are unfamiliar.

The text is divided into three main
parts, viz. "Introduction; The Hunters of the Ice Age and Farmers and
Traders." There are no formal chapters, but each of the sixteen sections
begins with a ruler-like time-scale. The relevant period is coloured in red and
so it is quite clear to the reader how far we have come and where we are now in
the story. Anyone who has dealt with
queries from the general public, as at West Heath for example, will appreciate
the value of this approach.

The geology of the London Basin, the
complexities of the changing position of the Thames in glacial periods and the
formation of the river's terraces are amongst the subjects dealt with in the
first part. Explana­tions are clear and are supported by good illustrations. In
general the strength of this book is that a great deal of information,
including environmental evidence as well as the reports on excavations and
finds, is presented in an easily understood format. References to the various
parts of London are always interesting, and such captions as "Elephants in
Trafalgar. Square" have immediate appeal.

HADAS members will be particularly
interested in the references to West Heath that are in the second part,
"Hunters of the Ice Age". A good photo­graph shows a selection of
artefacts from the excavation although, as in all of the illustrations, no
scale is used. An imaginary reconstruction depicts five determined hunters
stalking two somewhat unobservant deer. The text is unclear in parts, and I
quote:

"After an
early phase of occupation in a more open landscape, which was subsequently
abandoned, a small camp was set up near a stream. The excavators found the
remains of several camp-fire hearths and thousands of flint tools."

The following points should be made.
Firstly, the evidence for an open landscape is not given. The earliest
environmental evidence for West Heath post-dates the Mesolithic occupation.

Pollen diagrams of samples taken from
the boggy area 300 m to the south­east of West Heath Spa were supported by the
seed and beetle assemblages, which showed lime-dominated closed forest dating
to approximately 4000 BC at the lowest level. No earlier evidence was
retrieved. (Girling and Grieg, 1977,45-47)

Secondly, the text appears to infer that
the thousands of struck flints came from the later occupation, whereas they are
associated with an earlier phase and approximately only thirty came from the
later one.

Thirdly, although concentrations of
burnt stones are clear and fire was obviously used, no hearths in the sense of
deliberately arranged construc­tions such as a circle of large stones, for
example, have been identified at West Heath.

The third section of the book deals with
the development of farming, village life, ritual, defended sites and finally
the coming of Rome. With the exception of the reconstruction of two Bronze Age
men ploughing and apparently wearing natty suits in red and blue respectively,
the text is enhanced by very good illustrations. Reconstructions such as the
Heathrow temple and village and the Carshalton enclosure bring the book to life
and the photographs are of a high standard. The Bronze Age axe-hammer and
macehead, the hoard of metalwork and the Iron Age boar figurines are but three
worthy of special mention.

In all, this hook is very good value at
£4.95 and should be a very popular buy for both adults and older
schoolchildren.
By MYFANWY STEWART

REP: Girling G. and
Grieq J., Palaeoecological Investigations of a site at

Hampstead Heath London.

In Nature Vol.
2613, 7 July 1977 pp. 45-47.

MYSTERIOUS MEDICINE WHEEL, WYOMING

June Gibson
writes: 'The piece by Stewart Wild in the HADAS December 1990 Newsletter
reminded me that the 'wheel' was a location much used in the film 'Pet Sematary'
(sic), a film based on the fantasy/horror novel by Stephen King. Just thought
HADAS members would like to know: (Prospective viewers should have strong stomachs.

HELP WANTED:

Does anyone have
an electric kettle, teapot and a set of scales they could donate for use in the
finds processing room at Avenue House? If so please contact Brian Wrigley
(08.1-959 5982) or Andy Simpson (081-205 4546).